Electronic still cameras for recording static images on a magnetic record medium in the form of a disc include a pair of magnetic heads which are adapted for sliding contact with the signal bearing surface of the record medium in rotation and by which signals are delivered to or received from two tracks of the medium at the same time or alternately.
The present applicant has already proposed such a magnetic head of the composite type as shown in FIGS. 23 and 24. The proposed magnetic head is disclosed in detail in published unexamined Japanese patent application SHO No. 60-147912.
The magnetic head comprises a pair of head chips 25, 26 fixed to each other with a shield member 12 interposed therebetween, and base plates 1, 10 are secured to the outer sides of the head chips 25,26, respectively, to give increased strength to the assembly. Each head chip 25 (26) comprises a pair of plate-like magnetic cores 2, 20 (21, 22) prepared from a magnetic bulk material, having a thickness equal to the width of the track and butting against each other. At the front ends of the butting joints, gaps G1 and G2 are formed. The head chips 25, 26 and the base plates 1, 10 are each formed with a coil window 41 for providing coils 4. A magnetic record medium moves in a direction perpendicular to a plane containing the gaps G1 and G2.
According to the present standard, the width of the track, i.e. the thickness X of the magnetic cores 2, 20, 21, 22 is about 60 .mu.m, and the spacing H between the pair of head chips 25 and 26 is 40 .mu.m.
The shield member 12 interposed between the two head chips 25 and 26 prevents cross talk of signals owing to the interference of the electro-magnetic fields when signals are recorded or reproduced because the two gaps are very close to each other.
To assure that the magnetic head will be usable for different types of cameras, the two head chips 25 and 26 must be so arranged that the gaps G1 and G2 are positioned on the same plane.
However, because of the necessity of forming the coils, the magnetic head needs to be produced by fabricating the two head chips 25, 26 individually, winding a wire around each of the chips 25, 26 and thereafter assembling the head chips 25, 26 as arranged side by side at a spacing equal to the specified pitch of the tracks. The production of the magnetic head therefore requires an adjusting procedure for arranging the two gaps on the same plane, and the adjusting procedure renders the magnetic head inefficient to produce in quantities. Further even if the adjustment is made, the two gaps inevitably involve some adjustment error, so that variations in the adjustment error reduce the yield or record reproductivity of the magnetic head.